When is it too cold to use your camera outside?

Rylan Zolinski

Rylan Zolinski

Well-known member
Tomorrow it's going to be -17 celcius (roughly 1 degree fahrenheit). Is this too cold for my XHA1? I don't have any sort of cover for my camera in cold weather at the moment and I need a few exterior shots.
 
Might work, and it might not.

A trick that works to counteract the cold, and has saved me a time or two: Wrap the camera up in something (I used a space blanket), and throw in some of those hand warmer packs. *Should* get the cam warm enough to shoot if it's not working. Even if the camera itself is working fine without help in that kind of temperature, be sure to keep the batteries warm. When they're not on the camera, store them under your coat, close to the skin, so your body heat will keep them from freezing. When batteries get cold, they don't last nearly as long.
 
i used the XHA1 in -30 C weather.. worked fine.. there was a lot of condensation upon going inside.. so allow for a while for it to dry up.
 
I've used my HMC150 out int he cold for a while... only problem, the focus rings stiffens up... and it was only 20F

:D
 
Focus ring, frozen LCD, and batts that run out of juice fast are the only things I think you really have to worry about (and the LCD screen thing I have only read about, never experienced).
 
Just did 3 hours of 6 F with a DVC30 which has a tape drive. Tape mechanism would not function and batteries drained quickly. Got back to the car and taped chemical heat packs to the cam and everything worked ok so I went back and filmed what I needed.
 
I used my DVX in the arctic once, for a docudrama to air on the Skin Flix network. Ran pretty good, but a Polar bear chased me, ate my guide, and in general played havoc with the lights. The footage, needles to say, was kinda snowy.
 
My company has shot hundreds of hours in Alaska with the HVX200, HPX500, DSR-500WSL, DVX100 and tons of other cameras. LCD freeze up is the worst part. Keep you camera out in the cold as long as possible (Not bring it in and out and in and out as it builds condensation). I usually take batteries off and keep them in my pocket or under my coat.

Coldest to date has been 25-30 below zero. No sweat. Nice to have a viewfinder though.

Batteries are about 1/3 capacity at that temperature. Everything else works fine in my experience.

I did however, just bid a project needing Portabrace polar bears because it could possibly get 50 below or so for extended amounts of time (slope shooting).

John
 
By the way, one of the worst things - tripods breaking. Anything with metal parts is way more prone to breaking when it gets cold. I've snapped tripod handles, etc.

A good fluid head saves a lot of headache in the cold.
 
I went out and shot in the cold today.

Main problem:

-LCD screen freezing and giving a strange motion effect which looks like I was shooting with a very low shutter speed.

-Viewfinder kept fogging up.

Things that went well:

-I could not feel the cold on my hands. You know why? Because I couldn't feel them anymore. I forgot my freakin' gloves.

The footage came out alright in the end. I am satisfied with it. I kept the camera warm by putting it inside of my jacket and zipping my jacket up (baggy jacket).
 
LCDs are liquid, and in the cold they can freeze up which gives you the stuttery/hazy motion issue. Strap a handwarmer to the back of the LCD and it'll solve that.
 
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